Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 41 years to Stan. No children. We have 1 Chihuahua, Christopher Robin, and 2 calico cats named Capt. Fishipants (a rare MALE calico) and Daphne Doolittle. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 10 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog, not a business. I share what interests me I am not selling or making a profit.

Elaine and Melinda grew up riding horses and are natural horsewomen. It had been a dream of mine to be able to ride with them but I was always afraid of the horses. Finally, in my 30's Melinda had a horse I could learn on and she taught me how to do everything. Then she and Elaine would take me on trail rides with them. I got to do it for about 3 years before my body gave out. I'm so thankful that I got those 3 years to do something so enjoyable.

Lee grew up riding too. He rode "Roller". Jenny and Luke rode too but not as often as Lee. The kids are naturals too.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Our nephew, Aaron, is attending The Citadel. He's done very well with his grades down there and has managed to survive his first year, the hardest year. This was Recognition Day. I though it would be a nice air conditioned auditorium with boring speeches and handing out ribbons. Nope, they torture the poor boys all day long with physical contests. One of his buddies took the photos and I got them from Facebook (thank you!) and here are the scrapbook pages I did for him.

Our nephew, Aaron, went to a river party and this is the scrapbook page I did for him. I didn't include any photos of him with girls as one day his wife wouldn't appreciate that. Whoever took the photos gave me some odd angles that were fun to work with.

Archaeologist Lindsay Chamberlain helps uncover a sunken Spanish galleon before the cofferdam subsides into the ocean and solve several murders while maintaining her relationship with her beau and fighting off thieves.

Someone discovers a journal in an attic and it gives the story of what happened to the Spanish galleon. Now to find the Spanish galleon which has been done by the time the story begins. So archaeologists descend on a small island off the Georgia coast. A coffer dam was built around the wreck to allow the teams to work in the dry. Skeletons are found and the story starts to match the journal. But new murders start happening.

It's a good light read but they could have done a better job editing. There were some spelling mistakes and choppy sentences. It needed a little work on the dialogue which sometimes seems more informational instead of natural conversation. But I can recommend it to anyone, any age.

Janet Leigh and Anthony Perkins star in Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie, Psycho. In the movie Janet Leigh's character is murdered in the shower. The shower scene was considered daring and risque at the time.Janet Leigh didn't feel comfortable being nude in the movie so they used a body double named Marli Renfro. Renfro was a beautiful red head who had no moral boundaries. She had no problem with nudity, porn movies, dancing or posing nude for men's magazines. She became one of the first Playboy bunnies after posing for the front page of Hugh Hefner's revolutionary magazine, before suddenly and inexplicably… she vanished!

Marli Renfro's disappearance led to rumors that she had been raped and murdered by a serial killer. Robert Graysmith collected her racy photos and admits to becoming as obsessed as the detective in Laura who fell in love with a dead woman's picture. Kenneth Dean Hunt, was arrested for a string of murders including the 1988 slaying of Myra Davis, a model who was a stand-in for the initial camera tests that Saul Bass and Hitchcock carried out for the shower scene. Media reports assumed that Myra Davis and Marli Renfro were one and the same. But what if, like "Laura," she was still alive, and someone else had been murdered in her place?

It sounded like a very interesting book but Graysmith didn't hit it. He included very detailed minutiae about the filming of Psycho, especially the shower scene and about Marli Renfro's life at the time. But he also gives an account of the life and crimes of Henry “Sonny” Busch Jr., a Norman Bates--look-alike in Los Angeles who strangled three women. He was a Mama's boy too, a ne'er do well who was supposedly inspired by the movie, Psycho. He also tries to portray the emergence of pornography in the early 1960's through Hugh Hefner, Playboy, Playboy Bunnies, porn films, the "hip" free sex lifestyle that began then.

Graysmith's running descriptions of Marli and her undoubtedly beautiful body got old. Graysmith went on and on raving about her in soft porn tones. She was beyond a real life woman and had become a sex goddess. As Alison A. Shurtleff "True Crime Reader" (Benicia, CA USA) (on Amazon.com) said, "In chapter after chapter, Graysmith indulges in his puerile obsession with breasts, curves, hips, buttocks, etc., and it feels like watching a young boy with his first Playboy magazine. 'Marli's taut, round buttocks shone in the strong light,' he writes in describing a nude photo shoot." I came to the same conclusion.

He mixes up to much and then doesn't bring the threads together neatly. Except for Marli and Sonny, it's more like his disjointed thoughts and they don't really seem to come together for the main theme of Marli's disappearance. Some think that he was deliberately trying to verbally re-create a "shower scene" with all the short, choppy jumps from topic to topic. If so, I'm not a fan of the end result. It just turned out to be a mess to me. So I don't recommend this book.

**SPOILER**According to Wikipedia, Renfro married and is known as Marli Renfro Peterson. She has lived in the Mojave Desert since 1970.

Do you ever think of cleaning your upholstery as part of Spring Cleaning?You can pay a cleaning service to do it such as professional carpet cleaners. I've always done it myself.

First you thoroughly vacuum your couch or chair... cushions, back, sides, skirt, etc. I have a good vacuum cleaner so it is effective and doesn't just spray fine dust back into the air.

After vacuuming I take what I can fit into the washing machine and I wash it on delicate. Arm covers, pillows, afghans, cushions. I let them drip dry but not out in the sunshine (no need to stress fibers by drying in dryer and you don't want any fading by leaving it out in the sun). Other cushions (like the seating suchions) that are too big for the washer I take outside on the patio. I take a SOFT brush and some water with very little upholstery cleaner in it (no need to leave a residue). I pour it over the cushions and gently scrub with the soft brush. If there are tougher stains, then bring out the hard stuff like Mean Green for that spot (but be sure to rinse and rinse and rinse to get it off). Then I use a wet/dry vacuum to vacuum off the water. You can do this as many times as you need to but keep in mind that you don't want to distress the fabrics any more than you have to. I don't want my upholstery to pill, get rubs or stretched. The last time is with clean water to rinse any residues away. Vacuum the water out as much as possible. I use a Rainbow vacuum cleaner for this job because it has much more suction than a shop vac. Since I don't have carpets I don't have a carpet cleaner with smaller attachments.

I let everything get completely dry like a day or two with a fan blowing in the living room so that there is no mildew. Then I take the cushions outside again and spray down with Scotch Guard. This step really helps you keep your upholstery clean as spills should bead instead of soak in. Scotchguard has a terrible chemical odor so if you are sensitive then use a mask. Once it dries the odor is gone.

I regularly vacuum the cushions and under the cushions but I wash the upholstery about every 2 years. If I had children or the dogs were on it a lot, then I would do it more often. My dogs usually stay in the Master Bedroom Suite so they are rarely on the living room couch or chairs.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Traves Rees had a son named...
...Thomas Rees who married Polly Smith and they had a son named...
.....William Rees who married Mary Jane Freeman and they had a son named...
.......Green Hill Reese who married Telitha Jane Freeman and they had a son named...
.........William Hanes Reese who married Nancy Rebecca Lunsford and they had a son named...
...........Bailey Bright Reese who married Lillian Vianna Conner and they had a son named...
.............Wilford William Reese who married Geneva Margaret Lamb and they had a daughter named...
...............Eleanor Elaine Reese who married William Avery Huneycutt and they had ME!

Traves Rees was probably born between 1740-1745 in North Carolina. We have a good paper trail on him.

NC State Archives - Tax Lists, LP 46.1, 1782 Tax List , Capt. Hardin's District, Traverse Rhese, 250 acres valued at 30, 1 Negro from 7016 and 40-50 yrs old valued at 409, 1 Horses & Mules valued at 15, 5 Cattle valued at 5, Total of Each One Property 90. (I assume these amounts are equivalent British pounds although our nation was brand new. I don't know when we went with the American dollars and cents.)

Traves Rees fought as a Patriot in the Revolutionary War.Index to Revolutionary War Army Accounts, Volumes I-XII, Volume I, Pages 55-56, "Travers Rees-Volume XII, Pg 75, Folio 2".
Actual Text (spelling intact):
State of North Carolina, N5293
Salisbury District, L13, 5, 6
This may certify that Travers Rees was allowed thirteen pounds, five shillings and six pence
Special - Board of 1784
The Claims by - Deton the 25
Paper - Day of Sept 1784
By order: James Hunter and Traugott (sic) Bagge
Sam Henderson CB
Back:
Pd into the Entry Tahern (sic) office by Dan CarlandTraves Reece (endorsed by Traves in his own hand as Traves Reece)

During the Revolutionary War, State Militia soldiers were paid in case and Continental Line soldiers were paid in land grants. On the back of the certificate is "Paid into the entry" indicating that the certificate was used as payment on a land entry. The certificate is endorsed in Travis' own hand. It may have been used as payment on 250 acres of land that Travis owned in Wilkes County, NC as early as 1782.

His Will
This will lists these children: Thomas, Henry, John, Jesse, Mary and Sarah. Mary married a Rogers and moved to Gainesboro, TN. Sarah married Isom Snow. Thomas moved to Western NC in 1809. It seems that John Rees was either physically or mentally handicapped as his father assigns his friend, David Vaughn, as John's Guardian. Traves had some slaves. In his first bequest he gives his son, Thomas, "one Negro woman named Zilpah and her child, James." The rest were to be sold as part of his estate and the money divided between his children. This may sound harsh but it may have been his way of keeping a mother and son together. They could have been sold separately so it may have been a kindness on his part to keep them together and in the family. His last bequest is, "My will & desire is my old Negro woman named Betty shall be set free and that David Vaughn shall also act as her Guardian." Again, this seems like a kindness on his part back for those days. She was set free but she was given a guardian to make sure she is taken care of. If he just set her free, an elderly black woman wouldn't have been able to fend or provide for herself in those days. She would have been helpless. I do know that Traves' grandson, William Rees, (son of Thomas Rees who went to Western NC), and his family, was very anti-slavery. When William Rees got married his father-in-law offered them a slave woman for a wedding present but William Rees refused. They never owned slaves. All of William Rees' sons fought in the Civil War. The ones that joined the Confederate Army deserted and they all went over the mountains and joined the Union Army to finish the War. So I'm pretty sure that this would indicate a lot of thought on the slavery question. I think Traves Rees' will indicates a care for his slaves that was unusual for the times.

An Inventory of his Estate Sale
As you can see from this list, the 4 slaves that were sold were more valuable than all of his possessions including his land. This shows us how valuable they were considered. Before farm tractors, appliances, electricity and running water, etc. having a family and living & cultivating a farm was a very labor intensive enterprise. You needed many hands to keep everything moving along. Just imagine taking 1 acre of woods and making it into a field and planting a crop and harvesting that crop. You have to:
Cut down the trees with hand tools (no chainsaws)
Pull up the roots with a horse and chain
Pick up and move all the rocks
Plow it with a horse and plow
Plant the seeds
Keep it hoed so the weeds don't choke it out
Keep it watered
Harvest it
Gather the harvest
Take it to the barn or the market
When you think about how many hands it takes just to do that one acre from start to finish you begin to see how slavery became an easy fix. That doesn't take into account the household stuff either like washing clothes, gathering firewood, splitting firewood, toting water, cooking over a wood stove or in a fireplace, making cloth and sewing clothes for the family, preserving food, etc, etc. And most families had many children which increases the hands, as far as chores go, but it also increases the amount of chores needed. Don't misunderstand me, I do not condone slavery in any way! It was awful and, as a Christian, the abuses to fellow human beings is totally indefensible. But, as I've learned in studying history, it's not cut and dried. There are usually reasons why things happen, right or wrong. Unfortunately, to many slave owners, their slaves were considered more or less "tools" to accomplish all the jobs that needed to be done. But even if you look at them as tools, why would you pay so much for a tool and then mistreat it to where they cannot work? Cutting off a hand, an ear, beating them, whipping them... you are destroying the "tool" you paid so much for. So abusing slaves went beyond practical and into evil. Evil human nature and that was nothing to be proud of. Any time a human being has power over another human being there is the very good chance of our evil human nature coming out and abusing those we have authority over. On the other hand, we can't forget that there were good men and women who owned slaves but they were caught in their times and it was not practical to just "set them free". Setting free a healthy black person in the South would have made them a target. Someone would pick them up and force them back into slavery thinking they had gotten themselves a bargain. Also, setting them free in a hostile environment with no way to make a living, most were illiterate, was making more of a problem for them than solving. Then you say that the government should have set them free. That is also a very simplistic solution. There are 2 reasons: 1) As you can see from Traves Rees' Estate Sale, the slaves were valued more than all the other possessions combined including land. Now how would you feel if you've invested a lot of years, work and planning for your retirement and then the government comes in and takes away 70% of your estate value? Oh, wait a minute, they already do that with taxes don't they? LOL. But you see what I mean? 2) In some Southern states there were more blacks than whites, almost 2 or 3 for every 1 white person. Now set them all free and these ex-slaves flood the area with no way to make a living, homeless, desperate. You could have had violence in the streets. You can imagine if today the government suddenly stopped all welfare and tossed everyone out of public housing. We would be flooded with desperate, angry people and it could get scary.

So, by the time of Traves Rees, you basically had 3 choices: 1) don't own slaves at all, 2) own slaves but treat them as fellow human beings and take care of them, 3) own slaves and treat them as an objects. It seems to me that Traves Rees chose option #2.

If it had just never started! But it did and it became deeply entrenched and was not going to be an easy fix. It took a horrible War to finally break up the "slavery" log jam. That is the one good thing that came from it.

I will be adding more as I go through the Rees Genealogy newsletters. I'm not through by far.

Sources: Rees Genealogy newsletters (Editors: David E. Reese, David H. Reece, Joanne Reese Thompson, Christine Hall) from 1970's-1980's. I have the original newsletters.

Isaac Jackson Conner and Adaline Thomason had a son named ...
...Erwin McCoy Conner who married Mary A. Rhodes and they had a son named...
...William McCoy Conner who married Margaret Alice Ensley and they had a daughter named...
...Lillian Vianna Conner who married Bailey Bright Reese and they had a son named...
...Wilford William Reese who married Geneva Margaret Lamb and they had a daughter named...
...Eleanor Elaine Reese who married William Avery Huneycutt and they had ME!Isaac Jackson Conner was born between 1817-1820 in Rutherford County, NC to William Albert Conner and Elizabeth Dalton. He married Adaline Thomason who was born between 1816-1826 in Rutherford County, NC. Her mother was Nancy Thomason (see 1850 U.S. Census below) but I don't know her father's name.

4) Louisa A. Conner (DOB 10/181/874 in Madison County, NC; DOD 11/4/1919 in West Asheville, Buncombe County, NC) married William Fletcher Jackson (DOB 2/4/1872 in Polk County, NC; DOD 11/17/1934 in Asheville, Buncombe County, NC). They had Major Bynum Jackson.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Winnie Ruth McKinnell Judd was born in 1905 to a Methodist Minster and his wife named Rev. and Mrs. McKinnell. Born during a blizzard in Darlington, Indiana she was raised in a Free Methodist household. Going to every service where pentecostal worship and manifestations were routine. Even as a child, she wanted a baby. When she was 7 yrs old she told her school friends that her mother was having a baby. As the neighbors came to congratulate Mrs. McKinnell they were told the truth... there was no baby due. As a teenager she accused her boyfriend of getting her pregnant although she had never had sex with him or with any boy. Her parents took her to a doctor who denied she was pregnant or that she had had sex but she continued to claim she was pregnant. Eventually she ran away from home and when she came back she said she had been kidnapped and had given birth but there was no baby. These lies and machinations as a child/teen could be the result of immaturity and selfishness but it was causing adult consequences. It also showed her emotional unbalance. It seems she was a nervous child and woman.

She went to work at Indiana State Hospital as an attendent. She did so well there that they were relying on this teenager to take on more responsibility. She met her husband, Dr. William C. Judd, there. Dr. Judd was a veteran of WWI and had become addicted to morphine due to war wounds. He was never able to hold a job for long. At the time he was on staff at the State Hospital when she met him. He was 26 years her senior and she was only 17 yrs old when they married. They went to New Orleans for their honeymoon and then moved to Mexico so he could be a doctor for a large mining company. She left a small town, religious family who had to live on a small salary to a marriage that led to a lot of travelling, more money, her husband's drug and alcohol addiction and no religious affiliation. There was no stability.

Her marriage in 1924 to Dr. Judd didn't turn out to be as wonderful as she had hoped. Due to his addiction and his inability to settle down and hold a job, he was unwilling to have children. She would beg him to let her have a baby but he insisted on a form of birth control. But she soon quit the birth control without telling him and she got pregnant. Proving her immaturity and her ability to manipulate to get what she wanted. He decided that she was not emotionally or physically able to have the child and performed an abortion on her. She fell into a deep depression. When she got pregnant a second time, she left but miscarried anyway. These events were traumatic to her and probably caused a lot of emotional pain. I would imagine her feelings towards her husband would have been hard to handle. His addiction, his own demons and selfishness, his demand that she abort the first baby, her trying to run away from him to save the 2nd baby. But she always loved him and tried to get him off narcotics. But, when he lost his job at the copper mine in Mexico they made the cross country trek and when they arrived in Laredo, he used all their money and sold their car in order to buy drugs again. This time she had a nervous breakdown and left him. She went to live in Phoenix, AZ and got a job. She brought Dr. Judd from El Paso to Phoenix and had him committed to the veteran's hospital.

Her first job was as governess to the wealthy Leigh Ford family, a position she loved. She met their friend and next door neighbor, Jack Halloran. Jack Halloran was part owner of one of the largest lumberyards in Phoenix and was one of the town's movers and shakers. He was 44 yrs old and a successful business man with a lot of charm. He liked to party. He was a good ole boy par excellence. His wealth made him attractive and he liked the women despite being married. Lonely, overwrought, still beautiful, Ruth fell for Jack Halloran and began an affair with him. Torn between her love for her husband and her religious values and the feeling of being attractive to a dashing Jack Halloran with his money and power.

Winnie got a better job as a medical secretary at the private Grunow Clinic where she met Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig "Sammy" Samuelson. They became best friends. Anne was a 32 yr old twice divorced woman from Oregon and was the X-ray technician. Sammy was a 24 yr old woman from North Dakota who had been a teacher but was now struggling with tuberculosis. It was possible that Anne and Sammy were bi-sexual and had a relationship. Anne and Sammy were living together in 2929 North Second Street, a small studio-type duplex.Agnes Anne LeRoi and Hedvig "Sammy" Samuelson

The house where Anne and Sammy lived

The beds

Ruth moved in with the women for a short time but living in too close quarters caused problems so Ruth moved to Brill Street. Halloran would bring along his married friends and lots of bootleg booze, to would party with the 3 women. The men often gave them gifts and money. It seems that Anne and Sammy were interested in Jack themselves and he would often visit them without Ruth. Dr. Judd came back to Phoenix and moved back in with Ruth but all the partying got him drinking despite her pleas to her friends to stop including Dr. Judd in their parties. Then Dr. Judd took a job in California and he left again. One night in the Fall of 1931, Ruth introduced Halloran to another nurse named Lucy Moore. There was a hunting trip planned and Lucy Moore was from the hunt area. After Jack and Ruth picked up Lucy, Jack wanted to make a stop at Anne and Sammy's duplex. Ruth had turned down their earlier invitation to party by telling them she had work to do. So she was embarrassed and didn't want to go in but Jack went in and told them Ruth was in the car. So Sammy and Anne came out and Ruth introduced them to Lucille Moore. Although nothing was said that night, it seems the jealous Anne and Sammy were none too happy that Ruth had introduced the pretty Lucy to Halloran.

The next night, Ruth was again invited to Anne and Sammy's to play Bridge with another friend but she declined saying she had too much work to do. But she later changed her mind and went over. Their other friend was just leaving. They wanted to know how Jack knew Lucy Moore and Ruth told them she had introduced them. That started an argument. They threatened to tell Jack that Ruth had introduced him to a woman that had VD. Ruth told them they couldn't tell that because it was confidential information and if they did tell it then she would retaliate by telling the doctors at the clinic that Anne and Sammy were lesbians. She went into the kitchen and turned around to find Sammy standing there with a gun pointing at her and shouting that she better not tell anyone anything bad about Anne. According to Ruth, they struggled with the gun and Anne started hitting Ruth with an ironing board. At first Ruth was shot in the hand as she grabbed the gun barrell. After strugging and fighting for the gun she said it went off and killed Sammy. As Anne came at her again, she struggled to get up and she shot Anne too. Then in a panic she put the bodies in a trunk. The next day she had the trunk taken to her home. It was too heavy to be shipped. She said she wanted to ship the body to the coast and get her little brother to help her dump the bodies in the ocean. Supposedly, at her home, she dismembered the body of Sammy and put them in different trunks and baggage. She had it shipped to California. But, by now, it was smelling and a baggage handler brought it to the attention of the police. When it was opened they were shocked to see Anne and Sammy's body parts. They arrested Ruth.

In 1932, Ruth was convicted of the murder of the two women. Her parents and husband, Dr. Judd, stood by her through it all. She was sentenced to death by hanging but it was changed when she was declared insane. She was sent to the insane assylum where she remained. She was a model patient and was greatly loved by staff and patients alike. But she escaped 7 times from the assylum. The last time was in 1962 and she was missing for 6 1/2 yrs before being captured again. She had spent her time taking care of an invalid and housekeeping. In 1971 it was decided that she could be released. Winnie Ruth Judd returned to California, as Marian Lane where she lived in Stockton with her dog, Skeeter. She died at the age of 93 in her sleep, peacefully, on October 23, 1998. Jack Halloran was fired by his silent partners in his lumber business for the scandal he created. He eventually disappeared into oblivion. Dr. Judd died while she was in the assylum. Her parents had moved to the area so they could be with her. Her father died after a stroke. Her mother lived a long time. She was put in the same assylum as Ruth when she became senile. Ruth nursed her until her death.Winnie Ruth Judd

The trunks and baggage

Winnie Ruth Judd upon recapture after one of her escapes from the assylum.

Almost from the beginning, people suspected there was more to the case. It's possible that Jack Halloran was involved either in the murders themselves or in the cover up afterwards and the dismembering of the body. Prosecutors said that she entered the residence while the two slept, then shot them in the head out of jealousy over attentions paid to them by her married boyfriend. But she claimed self defense.

After she was convicted of murder and sentenced to death, Ruth began to tell a different story. She said that after the murders, she called Jack Halloran and he took care of everything after that. But he was exonerated. Did the police cover up for him?

This book was not very well written but the story was interesting. I have found a more recent book that has been written. The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd by Jana Bommersbach.

For Ruth's own notes on the story check out this link:http://azmemory.lib.az.us/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/ahfmur&CISOPTR=118&REC=4